310 Firrp Museum or Natura History — Zoorocy, Vor. XI. 
orchard close to a farm house where the family were at breakfast, and 
yet get away without being seen, carrying one of his victims with him. 
On another occasion, quite recently, one of my neighbors had thirty 
pullets taken in a single night. Eighteen of them were found next 
morning in a heap at the foot of an oak tree. Another farmer tells me 
that he has lost one hundred and fifty in one season, all presumably 
going to the foxes. 
“Yet although the farmer and the fox are such inveterate enemies, 
they manage to benefit each other in a great many ways quite uninten- 
tionally. 
“The fox destroys numberless field mice and woodchucks for the 
farmer, and in return the farmer supplies him with poultry, and builds 
convenient bridges over streams and wet places, which the fox crosses 
oftener than the farmer, for he is as sensitive as a cat about getting his 
feet wet. ; 
“‘On the whole I am inclined to believe that the fox gets the best 
part of the exchange, for, while the farmer shoots at him on every occa- 
sion, and hunts him with dogs in the winter, he has cleared the land of 
wolves and panthers, so that foxes are probably safer than before any 
land was ploughed. 
“When the snow is deep the farmer’s sled makes the best of paths 
for the fox, who appropriates them for his own use just as unconcernedly 
as he does the regular highway. But to see a fox get round the farmer’s 
dogs, in order to make friends with them, is one of the most astonishing 
revelations of character. Usually the dogs seem hardly to know at 
first what to make of his advances, but the fox is pretty certain to 
succeed in bringing them to his side in the end, and after that they may 
be seen playing together day after day. 
“Tf, as I am tempted to believe, the fox really works this scheme 
with the deliberate purpose of making it safer for him to get at the 
farmer’s chickens, he is gifted with a degree of shrewdness beyond 
anything he has been credited with.” 
Some persons are able to imitate the squeak of a Meadow Mouse and 
in this way can call a passing Fox to within a short distance of their place 
of concealment. My esteemed friend, Mr. William Brewster, has told 
me he has done this successfully, but I have never been able to accom- 
plish the feat, probably from my inability to properly imitate the 
“squeak.”’ An interesting account of an experiment of this character 
is given by Stone and Cram, who say: 
“This morning, January 31, 1902, a little before noon.I was crossing 
an open clayey pasture when I heard a crow in the distance give the call 
which means a fox in sight. Presently I saw Reynard himself trotting 
